# 1980–81 Oregon State Beavers men's basketball team

The 1980–81 Oregon State Beavers men's basketball team represented the Oregon State University as a member of the Pacific 10 Conference during the 1980–81 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. They were led by 11th-year head coach Ralph Miller and played their home games on campus at Gill Coliseum in Corvallis, Oregon.
After winning their first 26 games of the season, Oregon State fell to No. 5 Arizona State in the regular season finale to finish at 26–1 (17–1 Pac-10), repeating as conference champion, and were ranked second in both polls. Despite dropping the regular season finale, they did not drop in the rankings, and were seeded No. 1 in the West region of the NCAA tournament.
The Beavers received an opening round bye, and were shocked by No. 8 seed Kansas State, 50–48, at Pauley Pavilion. The Wildcats would reach the Elite Eight before falling to eventual runner-up North Carolina. Oregon State finished the season at 26–2.

## Roster

    Source:

## Schedule and results

| Date time, TV | Rank$^#$ | Opponent$^#$ | Result | Record | Site city, state |
| Regular Season ||||||
| Nov 29, 1980* | No. 7 | No. 18 Brigham Young | W 75–68 | 1–0 | Gill Coliseum Corvallis, Oregon |
| Dec 4, 1980 | No. 6 | Cal State Northridge | W 78–47 | 2–0 | Gill Coliseum Corvallis, Oregon |
| Dec 6, 1980* | No. 6 | at Pepperdine | W 82–76 | 3–0 | Firestone Fieldhouse Malibu, California |
| Dec 8, 1980* | No. 5 | at Portland State | W 102–58 | 4–0 | Peter W. Stott Center Portland, Oregon |
| Dec 13, 1980* | No. 5 | Portland | W 92–57 | 5–0 | Gill Coliseum Corvallis, Oregon |
| Dec 26, 1980* | No. 4 | vs. Northwestern | W 90–70 | 6–0 | Memorial Coliseum Portland, Oregon |
| Dec 27, 1980* | No. 4 | vs. Rhode Island | W 103–55 | 7–0 | Memorial Coliseum Portland, Oregon |
| Dec 28, 1980* | No. 4 | vs. Oregon | W 67–57 | 8–0 | Memorial Coliseum Portland, Oregon |
| Jan 3, 1981 | No. 2 | at No. 13 Arizona State | W 71–67 | 9–0 (1–0) | Gill Coliseum Tempe, Arizona |
| Jan 5, 1981 | No. 2 | at Arizona | W 61–49 | 10–0 (2–0) | McKale Center Tucson, Arizona |
| Jan 9, 1981 | No. 2 | Stanford | W 76–62 | 11–0 (3–0) | Gill Coliseum Corvallis, Oregon |
| Jan 10, 1981 | No. 2 | California | W 80–53 | 12–0 (4–0) | Gill Coliseum Corvallis, Oregon |
| Jan 17, 1981 | No. 1 | Oregon | W 82–55 | 13–0 (5–0) | Gill Coliseum Corvallis, Oregon |
| Jan 22, 1981 | No. 1 | at Washington State | W 66–53 | 14–0 (6–0) | Friel Court Pullman, Washington |
| Jan 24, 1981 | No. 1 | at Washington | W 97–91 | 15–0 (7–0) | Bank of America Arena Seattle, Washington |
| Jan 29, 1981 | No. 1 | No. 10 UCLA | W 81–67 | 16–0 (8–0) | Gill Coliseum Corvallis, Oregon |
| Jan 31, 1981 | No. 1 | Southern California | W 55–48 | 17–0 (9–0) | Gill Coliseum Corvallis, Oregon |
| Feb 6, 1981 | No. 2 | at California | W 69–54 | 18–0 (10–0) | Harmon Gym Berkeley, California |
| Feb 7, 1981 | No. 2 | at Stanford | W 62–57 | 19–0 (11–0) | Maples Pavilion Stanford, California |
| Feb 12, 1981 | No. 2 | at Oregon | W 78–61 | 20–0 (12–0) | McArthur Court Eugene, Oregon |
| Feb 14, 1981* | No. 2 | at St. John's | W 57–45 | 21–0 | Nassau Coliseum New York, New York |
| Feb 21, 1981 | No. 2 | Washington State | W 81–53 | 22–0 (13–0) | Gill Coliseum Corvallis, Oregon |
| Feb 23, 1981 | No. 2 | Washington | W 89–63 | 23–0 (14–0) | Gill Coliseum Corvallis, Oregon |
| Feb 27, 1981 | No. 2 | at USC | W 73–64 | 24–0 (15–0) | L.A. Sports Arena Los Angeles, California |
| Mar 1, 1981 | No. 2 | at No. 13 UCLA | W 82–76 | 25–0 (16–0) | Pauley Pavilion Los Angeles, California |
| Mar 5, 1981 | No. 2 | Arizona | W 80–62 | 26–0 (17–0) | Gill Coliseum Corvallis, Oregon |
| Mar 7, 1981* | No. 2 | No. 5 Arizona State | L 67–87 | 26–1 (17–1) | Gill Coliseum Corvallis, Oregon |
| NCAA Tournament ||||||
| Mar 14, 1981* | (1 W) No. 2 | vs. (8 W) Kansas State Second round | L 48–50 | 26–2 | Pauley Pavilion Los Angeles, California |
| *Non-conference game. $^#$Rankings from AP Poll. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses. W=West. All times are in Pacific. ||||||
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## Awards and honors

* Steve Johnson – Consensus First-team All-American, Pac-10 Player of the Year

## NBA draft

| Round | Pick | Player | NBA Club |
| 1 | 7 | Steve Johnson | Kansas City Kings |